101 Bizarre and Offbeat Records
A list of the weirdest stuff I have I on my computer or in my personal collection. |
1 | | Royal Trux Twin Infinitives
A record that abandons any and every rule about making "good" music. It's drug-addled, chaos incarnate, noise "rock" that nothing else I've ever heard sounds quite like. Anti-music at its truest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpcwA2fJkAw |
2 | | Deutsch Nepal Deflagration of Hell
Haunting, industrial, underground dark-ambient stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFHabOik6RY&index=4&list=RDIAJwpwtzt48 |
3 | | Clotted Symmetric Sexual Organ Are You Excrements?
Japanese noise-rock that bursts in and out of spurts of grindcore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_u_aXUN5CQ |
4 | | Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Vampires
Reggae and vampires, do you really need more information than that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QG8GwqhBO8 |
5 | | Death Grips The Money Store
Love them or hate them, Death Grips are one of the most unique bands of the last 10 years. A cacophonous hybrid of hip-hop, dub-step, reggae, electronic, industrial, and metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRqXMbuFe04 |
6 | | Khanate Things Viral
Challenging, ultra-dark, horrifying drone music. This is one of my all time favorite records, and one of the darkest things I've ever heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIPweLLHio&list=PLDql_Y6ISXUHapP592ZEzbqllAAe_fWTG |
7 | | Arcturus La Masquerade Infernale
Avant-garde black metal of the highest order that sounds like a nightmare at the carnival. Another all time favorite record of mine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL3G7e8KuYI |
8 | | East West Blast Test Popular Music for Unpopular People
2 members, one on the west coast, one on the east, sending snippets and recordings back and forth to each other through the mail, trying to out-do each other in what is surely one of the strangest collaborations ever put to tape. Here's the track that introduced me to this duo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ3YCRLOL2M |
9 | | The Caretaker Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom
Experimental ambient/tape-manipulation project based entirely off of the haunted ballroom scene of The Shining. Eerie stuff of reverb and noise drenched samples of watery sounding big-band and jazz music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOCn5tPwd4s&list=PLfioAmIpRYoGU_UE96Klv9KN5mKesaGUt |
10 | | 20.SV Acid Vomit.Human Genocide
Mega-harsh industrial ambient/drone/noise. This whole record sounds like it's giving you radiation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U31vHTnXEcU |
11 | | The Birthday Party Prayers on Fire
Both this record and Junkyard are classics of post-punk and noise-rock. Uncomfortable, anxious rhythms and wild, frantic vocals, with ultra-bright vortex guitar leads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXIOAY5B4RI |
12 | | Igorrr Hallelujah
Otherworldly, hellish electro-jazz-grind madness that has some of the most insane programming I've ever heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUtryO_NHBU |
13 | | Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun
Psychedelic experimental rock from Japan, and one of the most unique albums of the late-90's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdPCt5ZEf40 |
14 | | Psyopus Our Puzzling Encounters Considered
Frenetic, mind-melting, warp speed, impossibly technical spastic metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gexJwNg6zI |
15 | | Sistrenatus Sensitive Disturbance
Ultra-dark ambient/industrial/noise project that I don't know too much about other than they sound super creepy and unsettling (which if you're weird like me is perfect).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAfMm5-bB70 |
16 | | The Mekons Fear And Whiskey
A hybrid of post-punk and "cowpunk" that is still super unique even more than 30 years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1Vuw7_iP0&list=PLLV5rCAYWrglCQKwdi7EesjIeOX4tbUVq |
17 | | Angizia Ein Toter fahrt gern Ringelspiel
This band was always off the rails, but this album took their circus-like folk music into absolutely insane territory. This track is some of the best evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ye-zwrkcI |
18 | | ohGr Welt
A poppy, industrial oddity that despite its undeniable infectiously catchy tunes, sounds wholly unique and alien.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsP5t2iG3sk |
19 | | Harvey Milk Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men
Devastating, forward-thinking sludgy doom from the mid-90's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=461wHc4YzsM&list=PL8a8cutYP7foIy9A-iLrlrQWBoEbWPbjb |
20 | | Xploding Plastix Amateur Girlfriends Go Proskirt Agents
One of the best trip-hop albums ever made, and one of the most accessible on this list, this is a masterclass in melding electronic music with jazzy, lounge music, darker ambient passages, and hip-hop beats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M47Bsg6Bt3M&list=PL8EDD51E1852A46B7 |
21 | | Candy Claws Ceres And Calypso In The Deep Time
Effortlessly dreamy and psychedelic, one of the most chilled out oddities of the last decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9jvzVuYRyY |
22 | | Bloody Panda Summon
Super ugly drone in the same style as bands like Khanate, KTL, Gnaw, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDox_P9C-q4&list=PLJuX_hxFXDIbLU8-ErqxqGZcG5JQ-_G8d |
23 | | Devil Doll Dies Irae
Slightly similar to Angizia, this is a warped, theatric nightmare. Their full discography is worth checking out, some amazing avant-garde/experimental gems in there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLlVgYY4IIU |
24 | | Electric Masada At the Mountains of Madness
Jorn Zorn (professional madman extraordinaire) takes part in a towering, nearly 160-minute freakshow of an avant-garde free-jazz album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL-B_Qfj30o |
25 | | Brainiac Bonsai Superstar
Artsy, chaotic, noise-rock that even bleeds a bit into post-hardcore territory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8Ro-PX_GU0&list=PLBF02A9C837793CE2 |
26 | | Fantomas Fantomas
It should be no surprise to anyone who knows anything about "weird" music that Mike Patton would wind up on this list at least a few times. His Fantomas project is undoubtedly one of his weirder experimentations, but also one of the most fruitful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBZFA80oSXc |
27 | | Tom Waits Bone Machine
Waits is one of my all time favorite artists, and one of the most well known on this list, but make no mistake, he got fucking WEIRD on some albums, and it was awesome. This man could do no wrong, and every experiment was a success giving him (in my opinion) the most consistently excellent discography in music history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nq-WDW7Sm8 |
28 | | Author and Punisher Melk En Honing
One of the most interesting modern bands experimenting with drone and doom metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHL8jmEqvLk&list=PL0aK8Z1gzvt37AQbYHQJgyOWBfZ0tPqZP |
29 | | Diamanda Galas The Litanies of Satan
One listen to "Wild Women with Steak Knives" and you will be convinced that this lady is one of the most unhinged people walking the earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWlGlk1wm7w |
30 | | Everything Everything Get To Heaven
One of the catchiest and most fun records of last year is also something that sounds extremely distinct and unique. Distant Past and Regrets are some seriously fantastic tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGfe1zVPjOM |
31 | | Gnaw Horrible Chamber
Immensely unsettling, horrific, experimental noise/drone from the same mind that brought you Khanate. The opener "Humming" is damn intense, and it gets more twisted and dense and chaotic from there with "Vulture" being my favorite cut on the record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE7D5NjiJMQ |
32 | | Hadean On Fading
Jazz mixed with post-metal and metalcore sounds like an awful (or awesome) idea on paper. Luckily it ended being the second one here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkk_lWlwCuY |
33 | | Jellyfish Spilt Milk
Basically what you would get if you put Queen and Weezer in a blender - the outcome is absolutely flooring, one of the coolest records of the early-mid-90's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu9xIyZ6ZMg |
34 | | Lovage Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By
Another album with Mike Patton featured - a fantastic trip-hoppy experience with an intentionally awful cover. "Pit Stop (Take Me Home)" is SO good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPXKzHBTSA4 |
35 | | Manes Vilosophe
What do you get when a symphonic black metal band goes industrial tip-hop? This apparently, and it's also really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6u_IyMMl2w |
36 | | Naked City Naked City
John Zorn's most famous work, and also probably his best, absolutely mad free-jazz and (accidental?) grindcore. His sax absolutely SCREAMS on this album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xC0ZvuEuMg |
37 | | Nurse With Wound Ostranenie 1913
Very early proto-industrial/noise with odd, creepy soundbites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnS6dXdTSfs |
38 | | OLD The Musical Dimension of Sleaslak
Electronic, industrial, experimental sludge chaos from members who would eventually go on to form Khanate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH0pMBrEzxE |
39 | | Oxbow An Evil Heat
Tortured, strange experimental noise-rock outfit Oxbow had many great records, but none managed to surpass this masterpiece of madness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI1uOUTKFDE |
40 | | Chrome Hoof Chrome Black Gold
A total mess of an album that I really love, I truly don't know how to even describe this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRPJQxyov8 |
41 | | PainKiller Execution Ground
Free-jazz/abstract-jazz legend John Zorn teams up with a member of Napalm Death to create a masterpiece of an album that can't be categorized. It has all of the typical Zorn flavor, but has a darker ambient and ritualistic flair to it that makes it truly special.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj5-8C756iQ&list=PLUGl9JvipCOBdTGGMoWJdYtkOAXdxO5lP |
42 | | Pharmakon Bestial Burden
Seething with evil, a terrifying droning masterwork. The first track alone is fantastic, but the whole record keeps pace with the horrifying tone it sets perfectly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sryFDibdGzw |
43 | | Idiot Flesh Fancy
Theatrical progressive rock that has a bizarre carnival theme running through their sound. Very Patton-y.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg5qmaiiYys |
44 | | Praxis Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)
What Buckethead was doing before he went solo - and yes, it's weird, it's funky and it shreds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJkdiOeCEjE |
45 | | Oxxo Xoox Namidae
Nothing musically here is particularly ultra-strange, it's avant-garde black metal, but what makes this record really interesting is that they actually created an entire damn language just for this album. It might be super pretentious and too heady for its own good, or it could be super rad, I think I'll roll with the second assessment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL_MaRWRmBU |
46 | | The Residents Meet the Residents
No list of strange music would be complete without The Residents, the originators of odd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsGRasyHEEg |
47 | | Tomahawk Mit Gas
More Patton goodness, Tomahawk is one of his more overlooked projects, but this record is fantastic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWHo5Gu0XR8 |
48 | | Rozz Williams Every King A Bastard Son
This is some seriously dark shit, I know next to nothing about this other than it's one of the weirdest albums I have on my computer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7W0orD5T7A |
49 | | Mr. Bungle Disco Volante
Arguably Bungle's strangest hour - even if I do prefer California if only slightly. This is cream of the crop experimental rock music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ3WuOag218 |
50 | | Hella Hold Your Horse Is
Mathy, techy, instrumental noise-rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWqLiy9TLdg |
51 | | Swans Filth
At the time of its release, nothing else (that I know of) sounded anything remotely like Filth, this must have been a truly bizarre listening experience in the early 80's. Proto-Industrial/Noise-Rock greatness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=042yyvj_dhI&list=PLGY22gQRKH9ePKV1nZXq2AKefzwm3Qj_- |
52 | | Sunn O))) Black One
One of the most well renowned drone groups on the planet, Sunn are pretty well know, but they're still a fairly strange group as far as the casual listener is concerned. Ritualistic, ultra-slow paced, evil stuff. "It Took The Night to Believe" is my favorite jam from them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIR1KfKXH6s |
53 | | Cherubs Heroin Man
One of my favorite noise-rock records, this album is hard as nails.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJxGQ6yTNoU |
54 | | Aphex Twin Windowlicker
One of the most famous names in both the ambient and electronic world, Aphex Twin is undoubtedly ultra-weird. The title track here is my favorite tune he's ever produced, and the video is fantastic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MBaEEODzU0 |
55 | | KTL 2
Nasty, hellish dark-ambient/drone from the Khanate camp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuuYTZnP1oQ |
56 | | The Necessary Evils Spider Fingers
Punk mixed with noise-rock and reverb-laden, echoed vocals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgmjXNBkWwI |
57 | | Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Grand Opening and Closing
Proggy/experimental metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXGD3qjX7M&list=PLINesDgSwsOr09OjzduGFo0KLATKQFigY |
58 | | Throbbing Gristle The Second Annual Report
Very early proto-industrial electronic stuff that sounds really mysterious and swirling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiYidehDb0Q |
59 | | The Haxan Cloak Excavation
One of the most sinister records I've ever listened to - I heard the artist described this records as his vision of what traveling into hell from the living world would be like, it sure sounds accurate. The title track is truly hypnotic and haunting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otvGoSmEDIQ |
60 | | Ozric Tentacles Arborescence
Electronic instrumental psych-rock that flat out rules. These guys have put out TONS of records but this one is the first I ever heard from them and remains my favorite to this day. Jurassic Shift is super rad too though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQp5iWJwpoI&list=PLDBC31C8D4A35CF20 |
61 | | Ulver Blood Inside
An all time favorite record of mine, Blood Inside is the pinnacle of Ulver's creativity. This group has gone from black metal to folk, back to black metal, and then through every variation of ambient and electronic music possible, and this shows them at the peak of their brilliance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bb6yvlkT9M |
62 | | Car Bomb Centralia
Absolutely off the wall, mega-technical grindcore. Fantastic stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO0QAC09JTw&list=PL0GM3y2aAfHeEQKhJ9ctqvsYAb_DleuNv |
63 | | Arcana (USA) Arc of the Testimony
Free-jazz goodness from 19 years ago that still sounds just as fresh as the day it was made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq81inbYoGU |
64 | | Ion Dissonance Solace
Hyper-spastic metalcore with some of most intense breakdowns and chaotic rhythms I've ever heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh990QjPvv8 |
65 | | Behold... The Arctopus Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning
Some of the wackiest, most absurd instrumental music I've come across - kind of metal/jazz-fusion-y.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIxQjUyXBr0 |
66 | | U.S. Maple Long Hair in Three Stages
Really cool noise-rock that has a haphazard and almost improvisational feel a lot of the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmmnJ9ifFas |
67 | | Today Is the Day Sadness Will Prevail
Today is the Day at their strangest and best (if you don't count Willpower, that record slays). 2 and a half hours of absolute noise-rock/metal madness and mayhem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7SQ5Zi5E8s |
68 | | Niechec Smierc w miekkim futerku
An absolutely stunning, sprawling piece of experimental free-jazz and abstract ambient soundscapes, this is one of the coolest things produced in the last few years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peXHuAApR88 |
69 | | Butthole Surfers Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac
If the band's name doesn't tell you anything - just listen to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04jKY-ZJ6Qc |
70 | | The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I
A post-hardcore classic and a spectacle of strange that sounds completely unique, still to this day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fElahDx4fds |
71 | | Gasp Drome Triler of Puzzle Zoo People
One of the fuzziest, unpredictable grind records ever made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weOx36ts3i4 |
72 | | Skindred Babylon
No matter you slice it, reggae and metal is always an odd combination, but sometimes it rules. It sort of does here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsQhuxPsSjE |
73 | | AJJ Knife Man
I hate that they changed their stupid name, I loved their stupid name. Anyway, this is the best folk-punk record around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehFHGrG60GQ |
74 | | Cows Effete And Impudent Snobs
More weirdo noise-rock stuff, this is the kind of stuff I just can't get enough of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF_ZZJ3EAWU |
75 | | Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo
An absolute masterpiece mash-up of emo, post-hardcore, and metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hXpMGwbBGc |
76 | | Red Harvest Sick Transit Gloria Mundi
Some of the best industrial metal ever made, this thing is absolutely pulsing with energy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8kEcdy0qrw&list=PLD6XGbtM1p3sVam4hvLk3774V73d_8sJ7 |
77 | | Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come
The originator of free/avant-garde jazz, this is grade A stuff and a must-hear classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbt9DDolcag |
78 | | Shellac 1000 Hurts
Fantastic noisy post-hardcore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjMj6fJhxxQ&list=PLyLeuUX_0p0euigBrx45YO4FdQ26MPBF_ |
79 | | Suicide Suicide
The psychotic post-punk classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11KOFvXtg2g |
80 | | Gong Flying Teapot
What a psychedelic trip this album is, super spaced out early prog rock stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIgzP4Rj0Ns |
81 | | This Heat Deceit
One of the weirder post-punk records I've listened to, and one of the coolest too. "Paper Hats" is so damn weird, but one of the best cuts on the whole record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDq9YHcIip0 |
82 | | maudlin of the Well Bath
A top 10 record for me of any genre period, Bath is one of the best records ever created, period. It flows between death metal, jazz, folk and other genres effortlessly and without feeling weird for the sake of being weird at all. "The Blue Ghost" might be my favorite intro track ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2F3XNwVUeE |
83 | | Lux Occulta The Mother and the Enemy
A psychedelic/electronic death metal nightmare with shared members of Decapitated (so you know the riffs are legit).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvbr5DtIxSs |
84 | | Bardo Pond Amanita
One of the more drugged-out records I've come across, great stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQEIgaldkDA |
85 | | Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band Trout Mask Replica
I knew you'd all be looking for this one, of course it's here, what kind of weirdo would I be if I didn't like this weird fucking gem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiorncOFpcg |
86 | | Spastic Ink Ink Compatible
The coolest shred record of all time, this thing is non-stop maddening leads that are way too complex for their own good, a whole damn album full of them, but it's awesome anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5SWc_k_Hmk |
87 | | Hash Jar Tempo Well Oiled
This album IS drugs, this group must have been stoned into oblivion making this thing, probably explains why it's so good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aEtkSLf9hY |
88 | | Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects Sol Niger Within V3.33
A Meshuggah-like riff driven chug-fest of madness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLhSFATOhW0 |
89 | | Musica Transonic Musica Transonic
Time to pull out another truly strange piece of anti-music here - this is improvisational mayhem and debauchery through and through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41YvYbYj5Kc |
90 | | The Poisoned Glass 10 Swords
I just reviewed this sucker and called it the darkest album of the decade, it really is, check this droning behemoth out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCemYTZqCUc |
91 | | Whitehouse Great White Death
Manic "power electronics" music that really stands in a league of its own in craziness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyuUXi_gsuE |
92 | | The Reverend Horton Heat Smoke 'em If You Got 'em
Psychobilly's finest hour - basically surf-rock taken to the extreme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXCXBcVrbrM |
93 | | The Mummies Never Been Caught
Arguably the most punk band ever, The Mummies didn't give a single fuck about anything, and they were rad as hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFmoDn0kzrI&list=PL8OVZ1SuOjwjH3cB8oy2udOV8FMWEY0_v |
94 | | Spiral Architect A Sceptic's Universe
I believe members of Arcturus were involved in this, which might explain its weird factor. Super jazzy prog-metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ZipHFZTaY |
95 | | Meat Puppets Meat Puppets II
Another group that has a large cult following but is still super weird are the Meat Puppets - country and punk should have never worked so well together - but here we are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IenJY0QWIJE |
96 | | White Noise An Electric Storm
Really experimental stuff that verges on losing all structure plenty of time, early electronic/psych stuff with really weird sped up soundbites all over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZG8CE2KnBQ |
97 | | Einsturzende Neubauten 1/2 Mensch
Freakish German experimental industrial stuff mixed with electronic sounds, they make Rammstein seem tame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW80JfXLZGs |
98 | | The Gerogerigegege Tokyo Anal Dynamite
This is the epitome of anti-music, it's just absolute disharmony and utter chaos for the entire duration of the album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCYq9nzNMT8 |
99 | | Scott Walker The Drift
A lifetime of strangeness culminated to its peak on this magnificent bastard of an album. This is some of the most hellish, scary stuff I've ever heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5hvHEBLNpI |
100 | | Alice Donut Bucketfulls of Sickness and Horror in an
Early alterantive/noise-rock with female vocals. "Untidy Suicides..." was a killer record too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw9GUU-rg6w |
101 | | Spacemen 3 Taking Drugs (To Make Music To Take Drugs To)
Finishing this off with an album that could be an alternate title to my list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXdhONnLw2Q&list=PL223531B4F0175AA2 |
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